Posts Tagged ‘Wildlife Art’
Smithsonian Catlins & Auction News
George Catlin, Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie, 1832-1833, oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Curator of Art, Adam Harris, is the guest curator for an exhibition opening May 18th, 2013 at the museum. This remarkable exhibition, assembled in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, continues a new theme direction for the museum: exploration and examination of the American West. As a region, we’re shifting towards emphasizing the American West timeline, and along that timeline the overlapping, interconnected movements of art, conservation and exploration are continuous.
George Catlin’s American Buffalo is “entirely drawn from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection,” and will remain on display through August 18th, 2013. The show looks at Catlin’s work and feelings about the West via his representation of buffalo and their “integration into the lives of Native Americans.” Forty works are featured.
“Catlin’s paintings illuminate in great detail the close ties between Native American tribes and bison in the 1830s, and his writings about the land and its native inhabitants have informed generations of conservationists as they wrestle with sustainable ways to manage America’s Great Plains,” says Harris, who also contributed an essay for the show’s illustrated catalogue, to be published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Having the chance to work with the Smithsonian American Art Museum to interpret Catlin’s words and images was a great honor,” Harris says. “The resulting exhibit and catalog will help contemporary audiences see Catlin in a new light.”
George Catlin, Buffalo Chase with Bows and Lances, 1832-1833, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Arthur Wardle (United Kingdom, 1864 – 1949), The Enchantress, 1901. Oil on Canvas. 62 x 43". Courtesy National Museum of Wildlife Art.
In his lifetime, British painter Arthur Wardle excelled at sporting art; but his claim to fame was in part due to his rejection of staying inside the boundaries of accepted animal and wildlife depiction. He “drew and painted every mammal, from elephant to mouse,” using a great range of mediums. By 1900, Wardle had made a quantum leap with subject matter and began rendering, erotically, mythical images of wildlife and women. Exotic creatures, like these giant leopards at play with a thinly clad, alluring woman (appearing a bit tousled, she and the leopards have clearly been rolling around in the iris; there’s no fear here–this painting depicts intimacy, curiosity and play) recall, as the National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) says, the hedonistic spirit of Dionysus, Greek god of —-libido! And of wine, women and song.
Get your head into that as you enjoy this month’s NMWA Mix’d Media, happening on Valentine’s Day--February 14th from 6-9:00 pm. “Legends of Mythology and Love” offers up Greek-themed food and drink, music and a free glass of pink bubbly to put you in the mood for love. NMWA’s “The Enchantress,” a centerpiece of its exhibition “Human/Nature: Exploring Humanity’s Relationship with Wildlife,” has inspired the evening’s festivities.
NMWA’s Amy Goicoechea enlisted the help of Rush Jenkins and Klaus Baer of WRJ Design Associates to create a worthy, sumptuous setting. DJ Era spins music, “and those inspired by the evening’s more mystical elements can enjoy crystal readings by Daria and Power Animal Medicine readings by Teri Gilfilen,” notes NMWA. $5 cover at the door. www.wildlifeart.org
Boreal Owl III 10 x 8" oil on gessoboard - L. C. Riddell
Support in kind; a new kind.
Jackson painter Lee Carlman Riddell is fascinated with birds; she’s been painting her signature hummingbird paintings for some time, and more recently began showing her paintings of owls. Carlman, long a close observer and protector of wildlife, transmits her feelings about her subjects tenderly and distinctly. She knows a creature’s anatomy, spirit and biology. Now, a favorite subject and a cause dear to the artist’s heart have merged in an exhibit of Carlman’s paintings of Boreal Owls at Wilson, Wyoming’s Teton Raptor Center.
“Years ago Roger Smith and Margaret Creel Smith cared for injured raptors in their back yard, and Ed (Riddell) and I helped them check around for frozen mice to keep the birds fed,” says the artist.
Roger Smith went on to rehabilitate injured birds of prey at Three Creek Ranch; he phoned the Riddells, inviting them to come see the two Boreals he planned on releasing. Smith had been nursing the birds back to health since they’d fallen from their downed aspen tree nest as small chicks. Lee sketched, while Ed photographed the birds. Now, Lee Riddell’s early drawings have inspired paintings of the owls. The paintings are for sale, and half of sale proceeds benefit the Raptor Center.
Jackson, it’s nice to be back~~let’s see if we can beckon a January thaw, eh? Yikes, I’m sleeping in my hat! Here’s a warm-up first post for 2013.
Haven’t had the chance to stop by FLORA, a show of selected prints, paintings and sculpture at the Tayloe Piggott Gallery? The show remains up through February 2, 2013 and is curated by Piggott.
“All five artists pair the vernacular of flora with primary colors; the exhibition strives to envelope visitors in a profound experience of bold natural forms,” says the gallery.
They had me at “primary colors.”
Featured art includes Donald Beecher’s large bronze sculpture and a selection of prints; three large silkscreen prints by Ross Bleckner, an artist acclaimed for his meditations on time and mortality; a duo of Donald Sultan prints; a Piggott favorite Squeak Carnwath has contributed mixed media works—collage and painting. Finally, the gallery debuts Andrew Millner, “an artist who ‘collects’ trees and plants by digitally drawing their contours, in infinite detail, from multiple perspectives, over long periods of time.” www.tayloepiggottgallery.com
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Here’s a dynamite story told to me about the focus of this week’s National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Mix’d Media event, Carl Rungius’ 1907 poster created for a Sportsmen’s Show held that year in New York City:
“When the museum opened in 1987 as the Wildlife of the American West Art Museum, the inaugural poster featured an image of a Brunswick moose painted by Carl Rungius. The image was taken not from a painting in the collection, but from an antique poster created for the 1907 Sportsmen’s Show put on by New York’s Forest, Fish, and Game Society. At the time no one knew where the original oil painting was.
Fast forward 25 years to last April. The museum received an email asking if it might be interested in a moose painting that had been found in an attic on Prince Edward Island. The painting was no other than the moose featured on the New York Sportsmen’s Show poster – and the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s inaugural poster! 105 years after Rungius painted it, and 25 years after the museum’s opening the original oil was purchased in June for the museum’s collection through a grant from the Robert S. and Grayce B. Kerr Foundation.”
Love it when art history comes together! Kismet! And more magic courtesy of the Kerr family.
This month’s Mix’d Media takes place Thursday, January 10th, 6-9:00 pm. $5 cover, and lots of gaming and sportsman related activities planned…plus some tempting cocktails by Vom Fass.
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I was only 15 miles away from the Sandy Hook School the day so many of its children and teachers were gunned down. I am gratified to see that most of the initial, inappropriate commentary and speculation on that tragedy has died down. A locally based support fund has raised $6 million to date. If you would like to honor Newtown’s sacrifice and bravery, here’s some information on where you can send your support: Contact Info—Thanks to the Litchfield County Register Citizen:
Patrick Kinney E. Patricia Llodra
Phone: (203) 792-5330, X 248 Phone (203) 270-4201
85 West Street , Danbury CT 3 Primrose Street, Newtown CT
A toll-free number has been established by the Newtown Volunteer Task Force, an organization established by Newtown residents. The toll-free number – 855-364-6600 – has been set up to make it easier for people to call with offers of help to the community of Newtown. The phone line will be staffed by local Newtown volunteers and supported by United Way of Connecticut’s 2-1-1 Infoline.
pkinney@gbpr.com pat.llodra@newtown-ct.gov
Art is meant to be shared.
That’s the sentiment behind the works plein air artists Jennifer L. Hoffman, Bill Sawczuck and Kathryn Mapes Turner, partners at Trio Fine Art, plan to offer on Art Friday. That day, November 23rd, 10 am – 8 pm, visit Trio and enjoy ” a little bit of artistic respite” from the holiday shopping din and mediocrity! The sale and exhibition offers a collection of small paintings and drawings. Here’s where you can find something very special. In addition to fine art, visitors will enjoy live music and refreshments. These works are on display through January 5, 2013.
“I love smaller works because you have to step in closer to take them in,” says Hoffman. “It’s almost as if the artist is in a dialogue with the viewer. Drawings are special because they are so pure – there’s no color or impasto to hide behind. It’s just the bare bones of my thought process, so personal.”
Turner chimes in. “We include a lot of drawings and for me, drawing is a very expressive medium that can illustrate the artist’s creative thought development. It is a foundational practice that can communicate the artistic process in a dynamic way.”
